Editorial: Focus on Friday

Friday, July 14, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

An industrial area of downtown Las Vegas that many residents may rarely visit springs to life once a month as art studios and vendors ply their wares during the First Friday art walk.

The six-year-old event, hosted on the - you guessed it - first Friday of each month, is part fine art show, part street festival and all fun.

Its patrons run the gamut, from sneaker-footed families to girls in flirty skirts and Rollerblades to jugglers and other performance artists.

Its artwork is an eclectic mix, too, with fine art galleries offering up sophistication, wine and cheese and folk artists setting up shop outside among the hot-dogs-and-margaritas crowd.

Volunteers help patrons find their way around and hand out sidewalk chalk, so that visitors can create their own works right on the street.

There are those who criticize the event for lacking the focus to be either folk art or fine art. But we think all of it is fine.

One of the best things about First Friday, an event volunteer recently told the Las Vegas Sun, is that "it's the one time a month you see people walking downtown. And they're happy."

It's pretty easy to embrace any type of art when it brings together diverse groups of people, and it not only makes them think, but also makes them happy.